“It is only minor inspection work where our technicians will release the bolts before tightening them”.

However, he said, it could lead to serious problems if the bolts were not tightened. He said the affected bolts were located on the front, left and right upper-arm ball joint for Strada Triton manufactured between February 2007 and January 2009. The vehicle was launched in Indonesia in May 2007.

Earlier last week, Mitsubishi also recalled some 42,500 Strada Tritons in Australia for similar problems affecting vehicles produced between October 2006 and January 2009.

“We were told to conduct inspection campaign by our principal after [recalls in] Australia,” Rizwan said.“So far we haven’t received any customer complaints”.

Rizwan said there were about 11,000 Strada Tritons produced in the affected period out of a total of about 14,700 vehicles having been sold in Indonesia until April.

“About 70 percent are fleet purchases for mining companies in remote areas. We may have to visit mining sites to conduct inspections,” he said.

“Those living in urban areas, we will ask them to visit our dealers to be checked”.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Discourse: TNI reforms and respect for rights have come a long way: Minister

Erwida Maulia and Novan Iman Santosa

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Defense Ministry last week celebrated the first anniversary of the Indonesia Defense University (Unhan).Although the name is barely familiar to the public, the ministry appears to have high expectations of the new institution, hoping it plays a part in reforming the military, which has been plagued by accusations of human rights abuses in the past, and to help the country’s defense sector cope with future challenges. Defense MinisterPurnomo Yusgiantoro shared more about the issues with The Jakarta Post’s Erwida Maulia and Novan Iman Santosaon the sidelines of the anniversary commemoration. Here are the excerpts:

Question: How far do you actually expect Unhan to help the country’s defense sector cope with future challenges?

Answer: Unhan is an implementation of reform at the Indonesian Military (TNI), especially with regards to the relationship between civilians and the military. Unhan was established a year ago as we saw a need to produce people who fully understand the country‘s defense matters. We lack people like this, experts in the field. We can of course turn military officers into military experts, but we also need those working at the National Development Planning Board, the Finance Ministry and the State-owned Enterprises Ministry to understand defense matters. They will all, at some point, get involved in the defense sector, especially as we now also face non-military threats, such as political and economic problems, which can be bigger than military threats. So we need to develop capable people who will occupy important positions in the country’s defense sector.

We will this year roll out defense economics and disaster management programs. This is also a way to answer the growing complexity of future challenges.

The fact that the university has both civilian and military students is another sign of military reform. We expect the institute to be a joint forum to improve the civilian-military relationship.

What about within the TNI itself? What kind of reform measures have you been taking?

Knowledge of human rights issues has actually been incorporated into the curriculum of the Staff and Command College. More interestingly, and this is visible, we can see in the Army’s Special Forces Command (Kopassus) how human rights knowledge is being taught and practiced, how soldiers distinguish non-combatants from combatants. Kopassus officers drill themselves on this. Also in the Staff and Command College are exercises to document human rights requirements in the legal requisites to an operation order.

Today a commander must clearly understand that the military operation he heads will not violate human rights and humanitarian laws. Before launching an operation, a commander must issues an operation order complete with logistics and other attachments, including a legal attachment. This is mandatory.

Last year, junior officers from 12 military commands were trained on human rights and humanitarian law. The Army, Navy and Air Force simultaneously organized such training, too. Two years ago, the Defense Ministry trained 500 officers on the same issue. Feel free to test their knowledge of human rights so you don’t doubt them in the future.

We’ve cascaded this from top to bottom. Field commanders now clearly understand human rights principles and whether the measures they take would violate human rights.

Also the Defense Ministry and the TNI will now take serious measures against those committing rights abuses. If a soldier is found to have committed genocide or other crimes against humanity, we will not hesitate to punish them accordingly. They will be removed from their position in the military, suspended and questioned according to existing legal processes.

Those found guilty of committing gross rights abuses will be brought before a civilian court. This is the military’s commitment to respecting civil authorities, and it has to be done transparently and accountably. The TNI has for too long been seen as an opaque and secretive organization.

Past human rights issues have affected our military relationship with other countries including the US. You claim they have acknowledged our reform process.

From our point of view, we no longer feel that we’re in trouble. We’ve fulfilled the principles of reform set out 10 years ago. As an example, there is now no longer a TNI wing at the House of Representatives. We’ve also grown professionally. The 2004 TNI Law and the 2002 National Defense Law clearly affirm that we have to comply with principles of human rights and professionalism. In fact since 2000 we’ve endorsed 12 laws addressing rights issues.

Countries including Norway and Canada have acknowledged the advances we’ve made in addressing rights issues. There is a human rights watchdog in Norway tracking rights records all over the world and it recognizes our progress.

The TNI and Defense Ministry have also worked with the Justice and Human Rights Ministry and the Foreign Ministry to support human rights. We have joint activities under the umbrella of human rights, which we call national action plans on human rights. We’ve also earned recognition from the UN Human Rights Council on our extraordinary progress.

Recently the International Federation of the Red Cross commented positively on the conditions at our military prisons in Cimahi, West Java. Apparently they believe we treat our prisoners more humanely than the US, which has been reprimanded for the inhumane way they treat their prisoners.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Mitsubishi 'to inspect' its popular Colt L300 model

Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi has announced an inspection campaign for its light commercial model Colt L300 due to a minor problem with its power-steering gearbox.

"Most users feel steering is slightly harder than it should be, despite the vehicle being equipped with power steering," Rizwan Alamsjah, marketing director of PT Krama Yudha Tiga Berlian Motors (KTB), said Thursday.

"We have not received complaints from our users concerning this problem. But we are following advice from our principal."

KTB, which distributes Mitsubishi passenger and commercial vehicles in Indonesia, issued a statement Friday, saying that in very rare cases, small residue might remain in the oil path of the power-steering gearbox, which could occasionally impact on the power steering.

Rizwan said L300 users may not realize there was a problem with their vehicles.

"As most L300s are used in business, the users may find the inspection obstructs their operations," he said.

"Therefore, we are providing free lubricants to customers who have their L300s inspected."

Rizwan also said that the inspection would only take an hour of maintenance.

The glitch has affected about 17,000 units of L300 produced from July 2008 to October 2009. About 550,000 units of L300 have been sold in Indonesia since its introduction in 1971.

Rizwan said the defect was found during a routine inspection at the assembly line around March 2009.

"We contacted one of our principals, the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation *MMC*, to discuss the problem," he said.

Rizwan insisted the move was only an inspection, saying: "We are not recalling the vehicles, we are simply inspecting them."

Recall has become a sensitive word lately for automakers following a global recall carried out by Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) totaling some 8.5 million cars.

Honda Motor Co. and French PSA Peugeot Citroen also had to recall their cars recently.

In Indonesia, PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM), the sole distributor of Honda here, announced on Feb. 2 a recall of 3,240 units of its City model over a potentially faulty power window switch that could lead to driving hazards.

HPM said the recall in Indonesia applied to all City units sold between the start of 2007 and the end of November 2008.

Meanwhile, PT Toyota Astra-Motor said on Feb. 2 that Toyota vehicles in Asia and Oceania were not affected.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

BMW Indonesia reports record sales growth in 2009

A not very good year for the country’s automotive sector failed to push the prestige premium BMW off the road, with a pristine performance last year, as BMW Indonesia posted a trend-defying 25 percent growth in sales.

In a year when automotive sales dropped overall by 20 percent on the year before, 901 premium BMWs found happy owners in 2009, as against 720 a year earlier.

“We are extremely happy with the achievement. Indonesia is one of a few markets in the world where volume continued to grow significantly in 2009 despite the global economic crisis,” BMW Indonesia president director Ramesh Divyanathan told a press gathering.

BMW reported sales of 42 luxurious 750Li and 740Li saloons, plus 50 sales for the BMW 7 Series representing a 163 percent growth in sales against the previous year, leading BMW’s overall performance in sales growth for any given model.

The sales of the BMW 5 Series did well at 208 cars sold, or a growth of 41 percent and the BMW 3 Series booked sales of 539 cars, or a growth of 34 percent for that model.

In addition, the sales of previously-owned BMWs, known as the BMW Premium Selection by Bestindo Car Utama saw an increase of 35 percent with 202 cars.

As for 2010, Divyanathan predicted a double digit growth, barring any unforeseen events, with BMW Indonesia planning to introduce 10 new models, as well making strategic investments in brand building, the refurbishment of dealer showrooms and sales facilities, and human resource training.

The Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo) expects sales of luxury cars to hit the 4,300 to 4,500 mark in 2010, up from around 3,700 units in 2009.

“We will avoid any short-term push that will affect the image of our brand in exchange for volume.”

He said it was not BMW’s policy to sell its cars to taxi companies.

“Our customers have told us they do not want to see any BMW taxis,” he said on the sidelines of the exclusive gathering.

The 10 new models to be introduced in Indonesia will feature BMW EfficientDynamics technology that reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions while continuing to provide outstanding performance and driving pleasure as expected for BMWs.

“Our commitment to environmental protection in Indonesia is to bring technology such as BMW EfficientDynamics to the whole model range rather than to introduce a single so-called green model, for example,” Divyanathan said.

“The quantity of CO2 emissions that we can reduce by introducing the technology across the whole fleet of our cars in Indonesia will be much higher than if we offered this only for limited niche models.”